Hillwalker awarded €40k after fall

Hillwalker Teresa Wall, who was injured when she fell on a rotting boardwalk on the Wicklow Way, was yesterday awarded €40,000 damages against the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

In a judgment that will have repercussions for all of Ireland’s national parks, Judge Jacqueline Linnane said Ms Wall had been directed by signs to use the boardwalk which, the court held, was a structure placed on the land by the Parks and Wildlife Service.

Judge Linnane said it was clear from photographs produced in evidence that the boardwalk had been made up of second-hand wooden railway sleepers that were badly rotted, with protruding staples loosely holding down chicken wire.